San Francisco 49ers: If 2012 was Trent Baalke’s worst NFL Draft, 2013 was almost as bad
By Peter Panacy
The 49ers’ 2013 NFL Draft Class
It’s important to put Trent Baalke’s 2013 draft class into a bit of a context.
The 49ers that year boasted one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the NFL, and there were relatively few spots to make improvements and/or substitutions.
This, of course, gave Baalke the luxury of starting his “All-ACL” team experiments — sit on an injured player, whose draft stock fell, and wait a year and let those players make a serious impact later.
Two of the needs San Francisco had that year were at safety, to replace the free-agent departing Dashon Goldson, and to find a No. 2 tight end. And both were “addressed” in the first two rounds:
| Rnd | Player | Pick | Pos | College/Univ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Reid | 18 | DB | LSU |
| 2 | Tank Carradine | 40 | DE | Florida St. |
| 2 | Vance McDonald | 55 | TE | Rice |
| 3 | Corey Lemonier | 88 | DE | Auburn |
| 4 | Quinton Patton | 128 | WR | Louisiana Tech |
| 4 | Marcus Lattimore | 131 | RB | South Carolina |
| 5 | Quinton Dial | 157 | DE | Alabama |
| 6 | Nick Moody | 180 | LB | Florida St. |
| 7 | B.J. Daniels | 237 | QB | South Florida |
| 7 | Carter Bykowski | 246 | OL | Iowa St. |
| 7 | Marcus Cooper | 252 | DB | Rutgers |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/9/2017.
Baalke moved up in Round 1 to grab former LSU safety Eric Reid, which seemed to work out at the time. Reid would make it to the Pro Bowl that year.
But the next two picks, defensive end Tank Carradine and tight end Vance McDonald, not so much.
Carradine and running back Marcus Lattimore were the first injured players drafted. And Lattimore never made an impact, retiring before he ever saw the field.
Things got even weirder in Round 3, when Baalke traded up again to nab former Auburn pass-rusher Corey Lemonier. More on him later.
Late-round picks, like defensive tackle Quinton Dial and cornerback Marcus Cooper, looked like they could have provided an impact. But Cooper never made the regular-season roster and went on to post seven interceptions and 35 passes defended over four years between the Kansas City Chiefs and Arizona Cardinals.